Arkansas is still paying for hiring Bret Bieliema who was a terrible fit in the SEC and left the program in shambles. I think Steele is an excellent DC, but some folks are not HC material. Steele can get a DC job that pays him @ $2 million a year at any school that values defense. He's not HC material IMHO. Joe Lee Dunn, Bill Oliver, and others were great coordinators, but not HC material.
Read in the last week or two that Arky has stopped paying Bielema his buyout due to him - in UA's view - not making appreciable effort to find another full-time job. He's a consultant or whatever it is for the Patriots. Probably will end up in court.
Among the names I've read for Arky: Malzahn, Norvell at Memphis (also possibly an FSU target), Littrell at North Texas State, Drinkwitz at Appy State, Leach, Harsin at Boise State, Napier at Louisiana-Monroe (a former Saban assistant).
Interestingly enough, Malzahn's buyout is a bazillion dollars if Auburn fires him. But if he leaves on his own, he owes Auburn $7 million.
If he loses to UGA and Bama or even splits, would be interesting to see if AU waives his $7M or takes less and lets him walk IF Arky goes after him.
Was thinking more about Arky this afternoon. I'm sure they have good guys but they don't have SEC-caliber guys, which is obvious along with Morris being a mediocre head coach. How he (his agent) convinced Arky to pay him after a mediocre run at SMU is mystifying. Arky must have some idiots with checkbooks.
So you have a team with Bielema players he recruited for power-smashmouth Big Boy football who in the last two years were told they were switching to the Morris-Malzahn style razzle-dazzle stuff. And now they're going to have another coach who probably will be an RPO-style guy who still needs players for that system. That means probably another season of building, at least, unless the coach has the Midas touch.
If so, you're looking at five seasons at Arkansas of a LOT of money in payouts, declining fan interest, declining ticket sales, declining donations, and the chore of building all that up again along with playing in the SEC West. Recruits are going to be hard-pressed to commit unless they want immediate playing time, really love UA, or don't have other offers. Possibly all three.
Clear proof of how a screwed-up coaching hire and then "being patient" can ruin a program for possibly 7-8 years. You can't be patient anymore when you clearly see that it's wrong, things are going south and that's when it's time to pull the trigger.
